


that distant shore

by skittykitty



Category: Digitalta's Digital Wonderland
Genre: Alternate Universe - Crystal Gems (Steven Universe), Child Neglect, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Other, Starvation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:55:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23814196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skittykitty/pseuds/skittykitty
Summary: Sketch lives with their mother Adel, but now it seems they are old enough to learn about their other mother's family; the Crystal Gems.
Relationships: Adel & Sketch, Darcy & Sketch
Kudos: 2
Collections: Digitalta’s Fics





	that distant shore

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote all of this in one sitting and it has not been betaed

Sketch lived a monotonous life with their mother Adel.

Adel owner a car washing business, but managed to make time for her kid at all times. She had raised Sketch since they were a mere infant and loved them with all their heart.

But, the gems had been hounding her for progress on Sketch and their powers. Their mother, Kae, had supposedly been a leader of a rebellion, but Adel didn’t really believe all that.

Sure, her lover had had a rock in her stomach, as did her child, but that didn’t mean anything when it came to a mother protecting her child.

But, after lots of negotiations and deep sighs, Adel let Sketch leave her and live with the Gems.

_ But, _ she angrily told them all,  _ if they do much as complain about a headache because of you all, they’re coming back home to me. _

And that was that.

* * *

“Woooah, this place is so big!” Sketch exclaimed, looking around the outside of the beach house. 

Adel chuckled, leading Sketch inside. “Oh, it’s much bigger on the inside.” Sketch screamed in excitement as they approached the house.

God. She was gonna miss this kid. She had managed to spend most of everyday with her kid and now she was designated to at least once a week? 

God, she could almost hate the Gems.

“Adel!” A familiar bright green gem ran across the porch to them, bouncing and yelling, just like Sketch was.

“Ass!” She called back, smiling widely. Looking at the interested, but shy kid by her feet, she began to introduce her friend. “Sketch, darling, this is Ass, an old friend.”

They popped out from hissing behind their mother, a grin on their face. “Hi!! Oh my god you’re so tall!!” They were shaking as they looked up at Ass, an infectious grin on their face.

“Hey kiddo!” Ass grinned back, ruffling their hair. “How has good ‘ol Adel been treating you?”

Sketch seemed confused before they figured out what Ass was asking. “Oh!! I love Mom a lot!! She’s great!!”

Ass howled with laughter before looking back towards Adel. “So, you want to get out of here before Ani realizes you’re here, or wanna introduce Sketch to everyone?”

Ugh. Decisions.

Well, she doesn’t want to leave her kid behind… but also having to deal with Ani right now… in front of her kid…

For a few more minutes with her kid, she’d do anything. Even deal with a grieving asshole.

With a deep sigh and a fake smile, Adel held her kids hand and walked into the house. 

“Hey Ani!” Ass called out, “Adel and the kid are here!” The house was fairly spacious, but only one big room and a bathroom. She was suspicious if they would even remember to feed Sketch, but Sketch needed to know about their other mother and Adel just… didn’t know enough to inform them.

“Oh?” Ani walked in, short light pink hair going down to their chin, contrasting lightly with their white skin and eyes. Ani looked like a ghost the longer one looked at them. They wore loose white shirts and pants with a faint spattering of stars on the hems of the shirt sleeves and ending of the pants.

“Hello, Ani,” Adel hissed. “How are you doing on this fine day?” Ani, with their white eyes, seemed blind at first to anyone out of the know. They were easily underestimated, and used that to their advantage.

“Oh, Adel? My day was going perfectly until you got here.” Adel tightened her grip on Sketch’s hand unconsciously, angry with having to face Ani again after so long. 

“But, oh, who is this little Gem here?” Ani walked closer to Sketch, quickly lowering to their level.  _ “Oh, _ it’s a little Kae! Oh, wait, no, don’t correct me… it’s a Sketch, isn’t it?”

Sketch giggled, “Yeah!! I’m a little Sketch, just like you said!!” They were inexplicably happy, which just made Adel angry in its place.

God. She shouldn’t be jealous that her kid was going to be spending time with people she disliked.

She looked around the room, not seeing one of her other friends. “Hey, where’s Ron?” 

Ass laughed uneasily, “uh, they’re off looking to see if any “monsters” are around, ya know?”

It made her uncomfortable that she wouldn’t be able to introduce Sketch to everyone, but it was fine.

This would be fine.

Sketch would tell her if anything was wrong.

Going to her knees so she was to Sketch’s height, Adel pushed away Sketch’s brown hair that was covering their beautiful silvery blue eyes. 

“I love you, Sketch.”

“Love you too, Mom!!!”

* * *

At first, all three gems were heavily invested in talking to them, getting to know the child.

But soon they all realized how boring they really were, they didn’t have any of their mother’s powers and would be  _ useless  _ in battles.

Ani was the first to begin ignoring the child living in their home.

Ron lasted much longer, having never really met a human-raised gem before. But eventually they got overtaken with the gem’s missions and didn’t have the time to keep up with Sketch.

Ass lasted the longest, keeping Sketch entertained and feeding them and playing video games with them, but eventually Ani’s displeasure with giving the child false hope of going on missions reeled Ass back and Sketch was left in dust.

* * *

Everyday around noon either Ron or Ass would return home to feed Sketch. They would come in, go fishing through the fridge, and pull out a random somewhat edible something.

Sometimes, though, they would feed Sketch completely inedible things. Ass once gave Sketch the metal bars that held food in the fridge, and left Sketch to it.

So, often Sketch got one small meal a day.

Of course, the gems didn’t need to eat, why would they have food or even know how much Sketch needed to eat?

After a few weeks of the treatment, Sketch started to feel nauseous. They struggled to stand up, but they refused to miss a day to hang out with their mother.

* * *

“Oh! Hello darling!” Adel was focused on keeping her business running, but always had time for her darling kid.

It had been a month since Sketch had started living with the gems. They had been losing weight slowly, steadily, and now they were suspiciously easy to pick up. 

As Adel picked them up and whirled their kid around in greeting, Sketch didn’t scream in excitement, or say anything.

As Adel quickly settled them back on the ground, they fell to their knees, painfully throwing up the little food in their tiny body.

“Sketch?? Darling?? Are you alright??” Oh god what the fuck had Ani and the gems done to her kid.

With murder in her eyes, Adel took care of her kid for the rest of the day, heard what the gems had accidentally done to them, and fed her kid the biggest meal she could afford.

* * *

_ The gems would suffer for this. _

Adel tucked her little sunshine into bed, and headed off to the beachside house where the gems lived.

The sun had long set when she arrived. The door was unlocked and no one was home.

She waited in the living room, awaited the sound of their warp pad activating to let them return home.

It took many hours of angrily waiting, but soon everyone returned home.

Ass was the first to speak, “Uh, hey, Adel! What are you doing here so late?” 

Ron took notice of her anger and the lack of Sketch to keep her vocabulary PG. “Where’s Sketch? Are they safe?”

God, she was so happy that  _ someone  _ was worried about the most precious thing in her life. “They’re safe, all tucked up asleep in my RV.” 

Ani tsked, “Just get to the point, why are you so pissed?” They were irritated and crossing their arms. 

_ Good. _

“You fed my child one meal a day and they were  _ very small meals at that.” _

She waited for it to sink in, but it seemed none of them understood human needs.

She sighed, “A human needs three big meals a day to be healthy.”

_ “Oh.” _

Ron and Ass winced in sync, feeling the giant scolding about to occur.

“What does it matter to me what that human needs? They aren’t my responsibility.”  _ Oh, yeah. This is why she didn’t get along with Ani. _

“Because I  _ left them to your responsibility, Ani.  _ And you  _ starved them.”  _

In the end, it was agreed that the gems wouldn’t be allowed to take care of Sketch anymore, but that Sketch could visit them if they wished.

* * *

After a week of good meals, Sketch was back to good health and a happy hyper-ness. 

They went on a walk by the beach, happy to watch the waves. 

In the distance they saw a young girl reading a book.

They quickly walked to her, “Hello!! I’m Sketch!! What’s your name?? Oooh, what are you reading??” 

The girl, a very  _ beautiful  _ girl, laughed at their hyperness. “Uh,” she began to play with the long dark curls that curled around her shoulders. “My name’s Darcy,” she laughed, her dark brown eyes meeting Sketch’s silvery blue ones. 

Sketch sat down to her, their hands moving erratically as they used them to express themselves. Darcy and Sketch spent the day talking together over an assortment of topics, be it the book Darcy was reading (a book for school) or about the gems who lived nearby.

“Haha! Yeah I spent a month living with them but apparently they forgot to feed me!” They laughed it off, but Darcy seemed truly worried, before she faked a laugh.

“How long ago was that?” She wondered tilting her head a little, highlighting her ears which were pierced.

“Oh, just a week ago—OH MY GOD ARE YOUR EARS PIERCED???? CAN I PIERCE MINE???”

* * *

As the days passed, Sketch and Darcy met often across town and exchanged phone numbers. 

They became close friends very quickly, because they were both the only friends they had.

Soon, though, they would encounter danger.

* * *

“What’s your favorite kind of flower, darling??” Sketch was more scattered than normal, skipping ahead of Darcy on occasion, as their speech continued to speed up. 

“Hm, I don’t know, sweetheart,” Sketch let out a high squeak at the pet name, their face flushing a little. “I do enjoy a good rose, I also like lilacs and orchids, and just all kinds of flowers…” Darcy looked up at Sketch with a grin on her face. “But, if I had a preference? If there was anyone that resembled your divine beauty, I would adore them on the spot.”

Sketch let out a light scream as their face flushed completely under the flirtation. “DARCY!!!” They whimpered, “you can’t just do that to me!!!”

Darcy stuck out her tongue, “Yeah I can!!”

As the two played together, unbeknownst to them the place they were approaching had a monster the gems were battling.

When they finally could see the monster, it had tunneled under their feet and burst out of the sand in front of them.

Sketch screamed and held onto Darcy for their life. They hoped, prayed, nothing would hurt them.

After a few moments of nothing happening, Sketch opened their eyes. 

_ A giant pink shield protected them. _

_ Their mother, Kae’s shield. _


End file.
